


The Last Days of Winter

by florencedrunk



Series: The March 2017 Stucky Challenge [12]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 05:29:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10236914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/florencedrunk/pseuds/florencedrunk
Summary: The cell they put him in is white and warm and there's a bed with a mattress that's too soft and sheets that are too clean.265. broken monsters





	

The cell they put him in is white and warm and there's a bed with a mattress that's too soft and sheets that are too clean.

(The cell in Siberia is small and dark and he sleeps on the ground, if he gets any sleep at all. The one is D.C. is all metal, hot in the summer and cold in the winter — that's the only way he can tell what time of the year it is. Then, there are all the other ones, the ones he doesn't even know where they are, the ones he only catches glimpses of between a mission and the other.)

It's four walls keeping him in and there's a small opening in the door through which they give him food (that he doesn't eat, obviously).

 

* * *

 

For days (weeks?) he doesn't see anyone. He paces around the small square space until he gets exhausted, but he still can't fall asleep. So he stares at the wall trying not to think about anything.

(There is Zola, first, in the surgical room with the blood-splattered walls and the crusted tiles. Then, Karpov, the one face he saw before and after the ice. At last, comes Pierce, with blond hair and blue eyes and looking like something that he lost a long time ago.)

The first one he sees is the red-haired woman. She smiles and sits on the floor — he thinks she's trying to be as less threatening as possible. He flexes his arm and makes sure the metal plates make the loudest noise possible. He likea the way she keeps her eyes fixed on his. She starts talking, words flowing out of her mouth like a river through a broken dam. He doesn't realize she's speaking Russian until after she leaves.

 

* * *

 

He dreams, sometimes. Not good dreams or bad dreams, just bits and pieces of a life someone else lived: a ratty apartment in a city overgrown, two chairs around a table and windows too small to let any light in; a priest outside a door, and a revelation washing over him; a tent in the middle of nowhere, and two bodies sharing the heat.

(Before, he liked nightmares better than dreams; at least he didn't wake up disappointed.)

It's night when the man in the metal suit comes (without the metal suit) — it's obvious that he shouldn't be here. He leans against the wall and crosses his arms.

"So, you killed my parents," he says.

The Soldier smiles.

 

* * *

 

(He dreams of the red-haired woman, sometimes. They're in Russia and she's a ballerina and he doesn't know what that means.)

 

* * *

 

"So, mind control," the man starts. "Sucks, right?"

The Soldier doesn't respond. He likes this man.

 

* * *

 

(He dreams of Rogers, sometimes. He's small and then he's big but his face never changes, and neither does the way he's surrounded by this golden halo that makes him the most precious thing in the world. They are in an alley in Brooklyn and running through a corridor in Austria, and he wakes up feeling empty inside.)

 

* * *

 

"Who said I want to get better?" he asks the winged man. He's been going on and on about the horrors of war and post-traumatic stress and the Soldier just wants him to stop. "They gave me this arm, but I was always good with weapons. I'm even better now that I _am_ the weapon. Why would I want to change that?"

 

* * *

 

(He dreams of a woman, sometimes — he dreams of a girl, actually, of the woman he didn't see her become. She's beautiful and kind and she braids her hair in never quite the right way. He wonders if she's still alive, if she thinks he's dead — how could she not? — and of the kindness it is letting her believe that.)

 

* * *

 

Rogers is the last to come, and the Soldier is grateful for that. When he opens the door to get inside Bucky is crouched on the bed, giving his back to him. Maybe if he pretends to be asleep he'll go away.

He doesn't.

"Bucky?" he asks. "Buck?"

"He died. He fell from a train and into the snow," the Soldier responds. "But you saw that, didn't you?"

**Author's Note:**

> If you have questions or just want to say hi you can find me on [tumblr](http://florencedrunk.tumblr.com).


End file.
